Strike

we win this and the group looks much easier to tackle

good read. his point about the midfield will be something to watch out for. good chance of us losing the midfield battle. should tighten up the middle

the right players have been signed. the footballing philosophy has been radically different. give him time, he'll come good. i love how everyone on here were like "di Matteo has got some balls " after the Reading game and then "di Matteo should grow some balls" after the QPR game. di matteo will learn from this. remember the falcao horror show? di matteo must have been concerned about the defence and thus went with 2 defensive wingers supplementing hazard. we were defensively solid although it was compromised in attack. plus we did not have Juan Mata. the proverbial glue that holds the team together instead we had Lampard in the creative mid position who had a poor game. this lead to a lot of astray passes and inevitably we came under pressure. too early to judge di matteo

good choices for mods not sure about spike though

agree with the player power. disagree with the sacking part. calm down before judging rdm. sure he needs to be more ballsy but give him time. atleast the defense has bn sorted

the overreaction is more about the fact that we decided to "man the barricades" than try and control the play against qpr. maybe the falcao horror show was still in rdm's mind but he didn't change much in the second half to help the team attack more. against reading Oscar and sturridge came on nice and early to have an impact. tbf our defensive shape was much better but i wonder whether we can get the perfect balance between a solid defence and a devastating attack. Mata is the key imo

with hazard continuously drifting tothe left, our creative midfielder was lampard and as max mentioned lampard had a pass% of 69%. says it all really. our only source of attacks were cech's goalkicks

all we did actually was pump balls through cech. embarassing really. a crude wake-up call to all those who expect a title challenge this season on the plus side the defence was good, compact. mikel was a beast in the middle although he didnt have much help in the midfield battle lampard was dreadful tbf. sloppy passing, easily turned and outmuscled

whenever xpetrcechx posts it

the tempo will be up and the tackles will be flying in. not really sure of us getting a comfortable win today.

selling both of them is a risk because we need good(ish) squad players. Meireles did a good job against Newcastle and we could have used him in the CL or like last year as a 3rd choice. agree withthe romeu and oscar getting a chance part but it is as Spike put it, the squad looks a tad hollow now

probably but i have always wanted sturridge to get a chance up front since the season started

true that but the squad is never big enough. cover like meireles wouldn't hurt. don't see the point in selling. we had space in the squad

wouldn't have sold both Meireles AND Essien if you'd ask me.

gr8 article as usual but i hope Romeu stays beyond this season. the sales of Meireles and Essien will only boost his chances of playing in the first eleven

Oscar in for Mata, Sturridge for Torres, Romeu in for Lampard and Moses in for Ramires. we have Juve in 4 days

don't seem to be affected by the lawsuit with apple.

why not register malouda as well? dont have to use him but in case of a bad injury crisis, he would have been useful

i think the epl matchday chat section should stay closed except during the weekend. there is already an english football thread to discuss abt the prem league

spot on, mate... the pressure they build when they fall behind is only through the crosses. it's almost just "set-piece pressure" where they dump the ball into the box and win a corner and keep the pressure going. we have no genuine crosser in the team and even when a cross gets in, no one to pressurise the defenders. moreover, manu have valencia on the right and young on the left who are brilliant crossers of the ball and even Paul Scholes in the middle whose long balls are played like tracer bullets.

to top it he's Chelsea through and through

again, united don't play well and yet manage to win.. that is the difference between us and united

Wave after wave of soton attacks. United are rattled! But we all know how often united win without playing well, hope soton hold on here though

Get in there! 30 mins Soton...that's all we are asking you to hold on for!